Geeta Dayal on early computer music at Bell Labs

By 1956, a scientist in Poughkeepsie named Arthur Samuel had taught an IBM 701, a behemoth nicknamed the “Defense Calculator,” how to play checkers. IBM trumpeted the innovation, which put a friendly face on a sinister-looking machine designed for the military-industrial complex, and put Samuel and his checkers on national television. In 1957, while scientists at MIT frantically used an IBM 704 to calculate the position of Sputnik – launched into orbit that year by the Russians, to the great dismay of President Eisenhower – Mathews used the same computer to compose melodies. After many months of late-night experimentation, Mathews successfully coaxed the IBM 704 into generating 17 seconds of sound, laying the groundwork for the field of computer music.

Mathews had done his doctoral work at MIT in the early 1950s, where he worked on missile guidance systems in Building 20 using an analog computer that was made out of glass and wood and weighed several tons. In 1954, Mathews left MIT for a job at Bell Telephone Laboratories, excited by the prospect of working on acoustics instead of missile guidance systems.

Mathews’ boss at Bell Labs was John Pierce, who coined the word “transistor” and developed the first global communications satellites. Pierce loved music and science fiction, writing songs and stories in his spare time and counting Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke among his friends. Eventually, Pierce encouraged Mathews to take time off from his work with acoustics to explore the strange new world of computer music….